Blogging from New York on Cuba

Category Archives: Museum

Scientists from Cuba’s National Museum of Natural History (MNHNC) and the American Museum of Natural History of New York, signed a cooperation agreement in Havana.

Esther Perez, director of the Cuban institution, and Ana Luz Porcekanski, head of the Biodiversity Center of the US museum, signed the document at the headquarters of MNHNC, located in the historic area of Old Havana, declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1982.

The agreement expresses the decision to contribute to the knowledge of the composition and characterization of the Cuban flora and fauna, as well as clarify the taxonomic status of invertebrates, vertebrates, and microorganisms of the Caribbean biota, informed Regla Balmori, a specialist of the local gallery.

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The Cinema Museum of the city of Turin (north) is exhibiting Cuban film posters.

“Made in Cuba” is the title of this showcase of works made from 1959 to the present.

Sketches made by graphic artists of the Island are also included in the personal collection of Luigi Bardellotto, the curator of the exhibit of over 200 works now in the Museum, opened to the public through August 29, 2016.

“The exhibit remembers an exceptional time in our film industry. The posters were all hand-made with the silk screen printing technique, with print runs of 100 to 400 works,” said Luciano Castillo, Director of the Cuban Cinematheque at the opening ceremony.

Many of these posters turned to be better that the original posters of the films, and even better than the films they announced, he said.

Cuban Ambassador to Italy, Alba Beatriz Soto, said the showcase bears witness of the evolution of Cuban cinema in 50 years, but “it also reflects the changes of our society.”

Meanwhile, Bardellotto, who visits Cuba since 1998, stressed that “more than a collector, I consider myself a Cuba lover. There are anecdotes and years of searches behind each poster,” he added.

Bardellotto plans to bring this showcase to other countries, according to a note released by the Cuban Embassy in Italy.

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A huge exhibition of nearly 100 pieces, by 54 artists of the Bronx Museum in New York will be opened at the Fine Arts Museum (MNBA) on May 21, at five in the afternoon.

The exhibition, which is part of the largest museum exchange the MNBA has made with a foreign institution, will make it possible for Cubans to appreciate an area of U.S. top quality contemporary art, almost unknown to the Cuban public.
Corina Matamoros, expert curator of the MNBA, came up with the initiative of proposing the project to several U.S. museums, but for various reasons only Bronx Museum director Holly Block welcomed it, in 2011.
She shows special gratitude towards great artist David Hammons, who lent for the occasion his emblematic Afro American flag, several meters long, which will be placed on the facade of the Universal Art Building, since they only had a small version of such work.
Block said this exhibit in Havana of some of the most popular funds in her institution, created in 1971 following the movement of struggle for the civil rights of African-Americans, was a dream come true.
This cooperation includes, for 2016, another exhibition of about one hundred pieces of the MNBA funds in New York, which Corina selected especially from the art of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Due to the U.S. blockade against Cuba, this artistic work is practically unknown in that country and will be the first time a state exhibition of such magnitude will be appreciated there.
This action also includes educational exchange of programs, curators and artists and the cooperation of adolescents of both cities in the publication of a magazine, among others.